The Community Preservation Committee held a virtual meeting on Monday, June 13, 2022, at 6 p.m. The committee approved the minutes from their April 27, 2022 meeting with a vote of 6-0-2. The primary discussion revolved around the FY23 project grant for the property at 365-6 Water Street. Concerns were raised by committee members, including Chairman John Freyr, Paul Machado, Vic Farias, Alex Silvia, and Richard Colvin, regarding the property being listed for sale after the grant was awarded, deeming it an improper use of taxpayer funds and setting a problematic precedent. The committee reviewed two letters: one from James and Jeannie Padilla, the property owners, explaining their decision to sell due to the closure of their tenant, Boneheads, and assuring that any buyer would adhere to grant rules; and another from their realtor, David, who admitted to prematurely publicizing the sale without the Padillas' knowledge. Ultimately, the committee decided that the grant was awarded to the Padillas personally, not the property, and could not be transferred to a new owner. A motion to rescind the grant for the 365-6 Water Street project passed unanimously with a 9-0 vote. The meeting concluded with a motion to adjourn, which also passed 9-0.
AI-generated summary. May contain errors. Watch the video to verify.
Public / Other
uh welcome to tonight's community preservation committee meeting uh virtual meeting through comcast cable channel 18 and fall river following websites is forward government television facebook you can live stream uh today is monday june 13 2022 6 p.m pursuant to the open meeting laws any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium
0:27cities are therefore advised that such recording or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and deemed knowledge and permissible um roll call i'll call names john freyr yeah vic fred yeah paul machado yeah carolyn auburn here richard here alex here and i got everybody um so tonight we're missing jay burns and also tonight uh through uh zoom is uh john brandt
1:14john ferreira victoria paul machado carolyn auburn richard colvin alex silvia christine oliveira just came in and we have uh sandy dennis as administration and alex uh mello from um fred tv and jason burns just call uh turned in so uh chris if you just let everybody know you're here in attendance uh yeah kristen cantera aloe vera president attention i'm here jason burns okay thank you um john yes uh victor farias
1:59vic farias okay i did uh call you oh thanks oh very sorry about that all right uh no citizen input tonight no no one submitted okay can i have a motion for approval of the minutes from april 27 2022 i'll make a motion to accept the minutes from uh uh yeah 27 27 yes second second okay i'll just go down the line roll call vote uh john i'm gonna have saying i wasn't present okay vic yes
2:45yes caroline i'm going to obtain i wasn't present either okay richard yes alex yes uh chris yes and jay yes okay uh tonight's on the agenda is 3656 water street fy 23 project discussion possible vote now we vetted this project and it it does pass i mean um the only thing that uh i look at it is um going up for sale after we grant cpc money uh to me it doesn't seem like it's the
3:34right way to use our money for taxpayers and uh i think we should discuss that to make sure we're on board with that because in the long run we answered to uh the taxpayers i mean we did our job we vested it but i don't think this kind of opens the door for somebody else to come in get money from us and then sell the building i don't think that's a proper way to use our funds
4:00so if somebody wants to raise a hand and chime in and give your feelings on this too i agree with you john i mean it's just um i i think it's just opening up a can of worms going forward um it's just uh be nice you know you've got a piece of property you set it up you get it uh approved for for funding and that just makes uh makes the property more appealing to move forward
4:31and sell it i mean i feel for them but again i i kind of agree with you that this it's going to open up a can of worms going forward thanks uh vic go ahead yeah i feel the same way it's uh you know it's you're right it's gonna open up a lock and i don't think we should go through that right now so thanks uh alex you raise your hand
4:56yeah um i agree as well uh i'm pretty disappointed personally about this development because uh i was really happy with the application that's submitted uh in addition to the changes they've made the previous year um i would love to put a preservation deed restriction on this property to kind of ensure it goes into the future but i don't know if like a 15-year deed restriction is really the return on
5:22investment that the community would see from this private property i know we've had issues with um private sales in the past we just rescinded the academicas grant for the elevator because they were selling that building since this is an ongoing sale we still don't know who the owner would be i don't know if the diaz were intending to complete the grant project before selling it or if they were going to pass
5:48off the awarded grant to a new owner who we don't know who the owner is we don't know what guarantees they would provide we don't know what the intended use of the building would be and how that would affect the windows we don't have any eta for construction if it would be complete we don't know if they're selling the building with the value of the grant added in we don't know um who's accepting
6:12the property and if they would even accept the deed restrictions um and then all the letters of support we received were for the padillas too which i think was really kind of the highlight that the community was supportive of the grant so with everything that's come along um i'm leaning towards your direction john richard well to sum it up i think it's just a no-brainer i mean yeah i don't think there's a lot of
6:40discussion to it i mean what the committee does for the community you know we we are held responsible for tax dollars so i agree uh any other input i mean my view is if she does sell it she might not show it the new owner can come before us again and uh it was a good presentation uh you know the the history behind the building is great but i just don't feel
7:12it's something we want to get into where somebody gets money from us and then sells the building it just doesn't look right in my eyes uh so it was did everybody read both letters everybody got the correspondence from uh today yes and they also read the previous letter from james and jeannie padilla yes okay all right okay i just want to make sure that everybody read both letters before you go to a vote
7:48is that something that we need to be reading publicly is that something that we should be reading into the minutes or do you have the copy of the last letter i do if you want if you want i can read both letters um go ahead and read that go ahead and read that into me all right let me read both dated may 31st 2022 dear chairman we hope this letter finds you well we are
8:11writing regarding our appreciation and being awarded the cpc grant for our water street building as you are aware our first request was years ago and was to have mike keane architects assist in a plan for preserving the building next we applied for the roof project and at last for our awarded project during these years we have moved from having boondocks as our primary tenant and in
8:362017 boneheads i was there it was their goal to thrive and then covet happened along with whatever other challenges they may have had boneheads closed their doors on january 1 2022. since bonehead's closure we have had a flurry of interest in purchasing the building for this reason we have retained a real estate agent we are aware there is talk floating throughout the community we
9:02want to assure that you hear directly from us of our current situation and also before our realtor officially lists the property for sale we know that the grant is for this historic building not for us personally it will be made very clear that in order for the buyer to utilize the grant they will have to abide by the rules of said grant please call should you have any questions at all we thank you again for
9:27your continued assistance and support sincerely james and jeannie padilla asap padilla realty trust dated june 12 2022 dear chairman i'm writing in regards to the azor padilla realty trust and the property at 3656 water street when con when contracted as their commercial realtor i was told it was a difficult decision for them but was due to sudden interest in the vacant space which boneheads was leasing bone heads
10:00had then been closed for over five months with no assurance as to the reopening date due to the significant loss in rent they felt it was in their best interest to at least market the property i was made aware of their recent application for the cpc grant and how it would preserve this historic building i was told that they did not wish to officially list the property until they had officially received the grant
10:26after showing the property to more than one person of interest they and i both knew that the word was out in the community although the property has not been listed with mls i personally made the decision to post the upcoming sale of the property on my own facebook page i want to assure you that neither jim or jeannie was aware that i posted the news nor did they know that i had contacted
10:52and shared information with the herald news i hope that you will choose to move forward with the grant that was awarded them for the preservation of this historic building please accept my apologize for any confusion or miscommunication this may have caused i am i am i sincerely thank you for your consideration david i mean i appreciate both winners they sent us to keep us informed but i
11:21still think that moving forward we want to deal with somebody that's going to be keeping the project and following it through instead of having someone else take over halfway through uh chris so i think um i think the greater point regardless of any of that um any of the letters the intent anything like that is we don't even have a precedent for this because it's awarded to gene and jim padilla it's not awarded to
11:52the property it's awarded to gene and jim and if gene and jim are not the owners of the property it's not like we can just decide legally okay well we're just going to give it over to somebody else because when an agreement is signed it's signed by the people that we have given the grant to and that's the two of them so i i just don't see where we can even do it
12:18i just think it's a moot point i just don't think we can do it yeah i agree with you uh any other comments so do we want to have a motion to rescind the grant for uh water street i'll make a motion to resend the grant book if the sale isn't certain i guess there is a possibility that the sale doesn't go through and they keep the property would it be
12:49impatient of us to rescind it now or would it be better when the sale if it does happen actually happen so we don't kind of close a door on future possibilities i don't know what the best way to do this would be i don't think right now if it's in her mind to sell she's going to want to sell and for us we're granting her the funds and i just think it's a risk on our part
13:13that we shouldn't if she wants to come back in a year from now because she decided not to sell we'll review the uh the project again um that's my thought on it anyone else uh question comment uh richard yeah no i was just gonna say uh you know it's true what alex saying but also too at the same time what if if they were to take it off the market ball necessarily what if they go back
13:40you know a few months down the road and want to sell it again i mean it's it's right yeah since it is what it's unfortunate bought so did we have a motion vic did you make it uh yes i want to make a motion do we send a grant from 36 and 56 water street project second okay can we have a roll call vote uh john yes okay yes airline yes richard yes alex yes chris yes
14:28jason yes and yes for me so the uh vote passes 9-0 so what i say we can review that a later date but i think we made the right decision for the public uh nothing else being on the agenda can i have a motion to adjourn
14:53okay uh roll call vote john yes vic yes yes caroline yes uh richard yes alex yes uh chris jason yes uh john yes thank you for uh you know joining the meeting on short notice and uh your journey have a good day y'all good night everyone